November book club

Candelle

Is the homestead Errigal a fictitious name? Does it have a meaning? Thanks.

Thanks Candelle – Errigal is the name of a mountain in Donegal in Ireland. In my novel, Nick Gillespie’s ancestors came to Australia from the west of Ireland (Donegal and Mayo), and named their sheep station after an Irish landmark, as a link with their homeplace. It’s very common in Australia – I am from a town called Clare in South Australia, named after the founder’s home county Clare in Ireland, and there are many other Irish place-names nearby too.

Spidergran

My Question is do you have a parallell universe escape world of your own that you drew upon for the story?
A brilliant read, thank you.

Thanks for your question, Spidergran. Hello from the Gillespies is my eleventh novel, so for most of the past fifteen years since I became a full-time writer, my head has been filled with parallel universe escape worlds – all my fictional families and the events that happen to them. So yes, I was easily able to imagine myself in Angela’s shoes, with her own fantasy life playing on demand in her head.

glammanana

Do you think families who live so far away from other families and friends tend to be more vocal with each other ?
I am 3/4 way through and just can't put it down so very well done and I will certainly tell others about it.

Hello Glammanana – I think it depends entirely on the mix of personalities. In the Gillespies’ case, having a strong character like Genevieve in their midst definitely stirs things up. She would probably do so even if they lived in the middle of the city!

MaceyR

Monica,

I very much enjoyed the book and would be interested to know where you draw your inspiration from.

Thank you,

MaceyR

NannyPam

I would like to ask Monica what inspired this book. Does she receive these long glossy letters every year, or, in fact, does she send them?

Thank you for a very good read which I have passed on to my DD.

Hello MaceyR and Nannypam – I write family comedy-dramas and the great thing about families as subject matter is that inspiration is everywhere. I draw on my own experiences from an emotional point-of-view – I love to write about the strong feelings of love, loyalty, ties, tensions, joys and grief we all go through, but the plots and characters themselves are all from my imagination.

trisher

I wonder about the Christmas letters. Everyone seems to have received one but no-one ever admits to sending them- so Monica is your deep dark secret that you actually used to send these things?

Hello Trisher, no, I don’t have a deep dark secret unfortunately! As I mentioned above in Q1, Q3 & Q12, my fascination with those letters comes from reading them as a child, and then creating my own parody version of them…

suzyQ1958

hello! My question is this: The descriptions of the outback were very vivid. Have you experienced life there yourself?

Thanks!

-Suzy

Thanks very much, SuzyQ1958. Yes, as mentioned above, I have visited the Flinders Ranges many times, having grown up just a few hours away. I also had wonderful research help from family friends, Keryn and Henry Hilder, who lived on a sheep station near Hawker for many years. I spent hours talking to them on the phone from Dublin, asking questions on everything from ‘What colour is the summer dust?’ ‘What does it smell like after a summer storm?’ ‘What trees could you see from your kitchen window?’ even, ‘How does it feel to shoot a snake?’

EastEndGranny

I had forgotten that I also had wondered about the ages of the girls. They did seem more like twenty somethings and I wondered what else they had been doing. Was it important for the story for Angela to have been married for 34 years and for her to have had the twins so early in her marriage?

Hello again EastEndGranny. As I mentioned above in Q5, I deliberately had the twins, and Lindy, regress from their independent lives to more immature behavior once they came back to Errigal, reflecting what is often the case when adult children return home. Re Angela – yes, I wanted her to be in her mid-fifties, yet with grown up children (as well as Ig), so she would be at the stage of really reflecting on the path of her life as a woman, a wife and a mother.

CeeCee

I enjoyed this book very much. Had a bit of a problem with the girls at first as they seemed more like early twenties, but when I think of my granddaughters (five sisters) all strong independent young women, as soon as they are all together in the family home they revert to how they were years ago, the petty squabbles, the in-jokes, they all re-surface. I loved the description of life on the farm.
Have never sent or received a round-robin myself, I wonder if anyone will be brave enough to send Monica one this Christmas.

I would like to ask Monica which was her favourite character and why?

Hello CeeCee, thanks for your question. My favourite character is Ig, the ten-year-old son. I have three ten-year-old nephews (not triplets, the sons of three of my siblings) and I find them so entertaining and interesting, with their mixture of solemnity, sweetness, straight-talking and ‘boyness’. Ig is a little bit of all three of those nephews, and I grew as fond of him as I am of my ‘real’ ten-year-olds.

dartmoordogsbody

Thanks for my copy of this book. I enjoyed reading it, though it is not my usual style. It is pleasantly upbeat. I am curious about Joan: is she modelled on someone in Monica's life, or is she someone she wishes she had had in her life? I think everyone needs a Joan.

muriel

Enjoyed this book, thanks and very good timing as the first Christmas card arrived today - it's not even December yet!
I found it a bit predictable but a good light hearted read all the same.
My question is do you have a Joan in your life or are you the 'Joan' figure?

Hello Dartmoordogsbody and Muriel – yes indeed, I have known many wonderful ‘Joans’ in my life, as I describe above in Q10 and Q14.

EastEndGranny

Firstly, yes Granny activist, does Joan have a life? I hadn't really thought about that. I did wonder what she was going to do when Angela and family left to live in Aderlaide.

When I was about 3/4 of the way through perhaps slightly more there seemed to be a lot of unanswered questions and I didn't feel there were enough pages left to answer them all and I was anticipating a poor ending but was pleasantly surprised. It didn't fizzle out. Well done Monica. I ended up feeling a bit sorry for Lindy. Monica, did you consciously not let all the characters have a happy ending? On reflection going over to Ireland and starting to 'live' seemed a much better choice for her. Have you stayed out in the outback? I've read that every year there are fatal accidents when spiders fall out of the car sun visors. I thought that was really clever using that in your plot.

I finished them book a few days ago and am still missing it.

Thanks for all your questions, EastEndGranny. Joan does indeed have a full and busy life, but for the purposes of the plot, I only needed to show her interactions with the Gillespies, not with her own family. Women in the outback are among the most resilient and independent I have ever met, so I feel sure Joan would cope very well after Angela and her family move away. I suspect she will also make a number of visits to Adelaide to see them, and also continue to visit Victoria and Fred on Errigal.

Re the question of happy endings – I want my stories to feel as realistic as possible, and sadly, it’s not always possible for everyone to have a completely happy ending. What I try to do is give everyone a hopeful ending, so that the reader can close the book feeling that, even though all the characters have faced difficulties, they have emerged a little stronger and wiser – in most cases – and that they will forge on with their lives.

Re the outback setting – yes, I have visited it many times. I grew up just a few hours away from Hawker and the Flinders Ranges, so I know the whole area well. I have also seen more spiders and snakes than I would like to remember. The ‘spider falling out of the car sun visor’ happened to me once, to my horror, so that scene was easy (if unpleasant!) to write. Fortunately, I was able to pull over to the side of the road without incident, unlike poor Angela…

grannyactivist

My question is, does she have a 'Joan' in her own life?

Hello Grannyactivist – yes, as mentioned above in Q10, I’ve been lucky to have had a number of Joans in my life. The book is in fact dedicated to a very special woman called Dympna Dolan, who took me under her wing when I first moved to Ireland 24 years ago. She was my ‘Joan’ for many years, until she sadly died in May this year. I miss her very much.

GrandmaH

Was the tracing of family in Ireland something Monica has done herself? If so did she actually hear of any bogus companies offering tracing services?

Thanks for your question, GrandmaH. Yes, when I first moved to Ireland 24 years ago, I did do some research into my own Irish ancestry. I was alternately frustrated and elated by the material that was available, and it crossed my mind how easy it would be to be given false information. Anyone researching their family tree is usually so eager for details, they are vulnerable. Over the years, I have also heard of bogus-ish behaviour in the ancestry-tracing field - the production of false family crests, for example. All of those experiences definitely helped inform that part of my plot.

lavendarlilac

Hi Monica! I loved the book - it definitely got me thinking about how I can never quite make up my mind whether I like getting round robins to catch up on the news from the past year - or whether I detest them because they are egotistical, dull or self-important. What's your view?

Hello Lavendarlilac, thanks for your message, I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed my book. As I mentioned above in Q3, I’m a big fan of round robin letters – mostly for their entertainment value, but also for the glimpses they give me into different families. As a writer of family comedy-dramas, I often find them inspiring too. I can certainly understand why many people find them annoying, though – my advice is always to read them with a pinch of salt, and never to feel guilty about deleting or binning them!

matson

Pleasant and easy read, I enjoyed The Gillespies, Have you ever been so brave Monica, as to drop the mask and say it as you see it?
The twins were a bit irritating at times, but will pass the book on and look out for your next work. Thank you.

Thanks for your message, Matson. In real life, no, I am inclined to be more polite than brave. However, that’s one of the lovely by-products of writing fiction – I often get to put quite blunt or honest words into my characters’ mouths that I would never be brave enough to say myself!